Job 16
1 Then Job answered and said,
Then Job, answering, said:
2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are all of you all.
I have often heard such things; you are all aggravating comforters.
3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldens you that you answer?
Will there be no end to windy words? Or is it at all a burden to you, if you speak?
4 I also could speak as all of you do: if your soul were in my soul's position, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
I, too, can speak like you; and I also wish that your soul favored my soul. I would also comfort you with speeches and would wag my head over you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should subside your grief.
I would strengthen you with my mouth, and would move my lips, as if being lenient to you.
6 Though I speak, my grief is not subsided: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
But what can I do? When I am speaking, my grief will not be quiet; and if I am quiet, it will not withdraw from me.
7 But now he has made me weary: you have made desolate all my company.
But now my grief has crushed me, and all my limbs have been reduced to nothing.
8 And you have filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me bears witness to my face.
My wrinkles bear witness against me, and a liar rises up against my face, contradicting me.
9 He tears me in his wrath, who hates me: he gnashes upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpens his eyes upon me.
He has gathered together his fury towards me, and, threatening me, he has roared against me with his teeth; my enemy has beheld me with terrible eyes.
10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
They have opened their mouths against me, and, reproaching me, they have struck me on the cheek; they are nourished by my sufferings.
11 God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
God has confined me with the immoral, and he has delivered me into the hands of the impious.
12 I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
I, who once was wealthy, am now crushed. He has grabbed me by my neck; he has broken me and has placed me before him as a sign.
13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaves my reins asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall upon the ground.
He has surrounded me with his lances. He has severely wounded my lower back, he has not been lenient, and he has poured out my organs upon the earth.
14 He breaks me with breach upon breach, he runs upon me like a giant.
He has cut me with wound after wound. He has rushed upon me like a giant.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and I have covered my body with ashes.
16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
My face is swollen from weeping, and my eyelids have dimmed my vision.
17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
These things I have endured without iniquity in my hand, while I held pure prayers before God.
18 O earth, cover not you my blood, and let my cry have no place.
O earth, do not conceal my blood, nor let my outcry find a hiding place in you.
19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
For behold, my witness is in heaven, and my confidante is on high.
20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye pours out tears unto God.
My friends are full of words; my eye rains tears upon God.
21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbour!
And I wish that a man might be so judged before God, just as the son of man is judged with his assistant!
22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
For behold, a few years pass by, and I am walking a path by which I will not return.
